One of the many staples of Louisville Cardinal football for the past few years has been high octane, statistically fueled 50-plus point games. Tonight, in a super-special, happy-fun-time Sunday afternoon football game, they scored ... two.
Yes, two. Hint to Coach K-Thorpe: if I have to type your team's score out in letters, you are doing a poor job with your offensive scheming and gameplanning. Work on that. Quickly.
Kentucky wasn't exactly the Andre Woodson-inspired offensive juggernaut for most of the game either, racking up 17 of their 27 in about the time for me to say "____ this boring ___ ____" and go take a shower. (In actuality, it was a field goal, a touchdown and a defensive touchdown in the span of seven minutes).
Hunter Cantwell, no Brian Brohm he, went 20/43 for 135 yards and three interceptions. Hard to imagine a scenario where Louisville fans would ever want/take Bobby Petrino back, but, yeah, this is it. (Aside: or do they even really hate him? I probably would, but then I have a soul.)
As FanHouse previews each BCS conference, the college football songbook will cast an unflattering light on each conference in the only way we know how. It's getting hot for Big East coaches.
If you find yourself in this position it's probably at least partly your fault. Whether you're the coach of one of the most storied programs in college football or you inherit the head job at one of the nouveau rich schools, your fans expect you to win now. You had high hopes of continuing the tradition when you took over, but now you could turn a lump of coal into a diamond if inserted into the proper body cavity.
Greg Robinson - Hot Seat
If you took over a team that fired the last coach because he went 6-6 and it took you three years to get seven wins, you might be in trouble. If you took over the 14th winningest program in college football history and you are about to give up that distinction to a conference foe, you really need to produce. If any of this sounds like you, Greg Robinson, come on down. You're our first choice for coaches on the hot seat.
Syracuse was a team that had already fallen on hard times when Greg Robinson arrived. But still, this is Syracuse. You should be able to roll your helmet out there and get six wins. Right? Syracuse has gone 1-11, 4-8, and 2-10 under Robinson, and the prospect of that changing anytime soon are not good. Syracuse bloggers, for their part, are making the best of the situation. Robinson's attitude has been mostly positive through the whole ordeal. If not, at least a little cryptic. I hope he has that same attitude when this season is over. Because the world needs ditch diggers too.
When I hear that a player is going to lose playing time due to an off field incident, I usually consider that to be missing the first set of downs or the first quarter of the next game. So after being arrested twice in the past two months, potential Kentucky starting quarterback Curtis Pulley could lose some time on the field as punishment for his recent actions.
Pulley was charged last month in Louisville on a misdemeanor count of marijuana possession. Then this week, Pulley was arrested in Hardin County on traffic charges including speeding, driving on a suspended or revoked license and having expired or no plates or registration papers, according to court documents.
Kentucky head coach Rich Brooks thinks that it's bull crap that one of his players would go to instate rival Louisville to score a bag. And the multiple traffic violations was just the icing on the cake. While Brooks hasn't named the punishment for Pulley, he isn't ruling out possible loss of playing time. Oh, look out! That sound you hear is the cruel wrist slap of Rich Brooks. Kige Ramsey is too busy pimping his magazine collection to be bothered, and Louisville coach Steve Kragthorpe is rumored to be smiling like the butcher's dog.
It was already understood that Kentucky was going to go back to being that team that could beat Vanderbilt on any given Saturday this year. But the loss of their potential starting quarterback would be a hard pill to swallow. So for now, Rich Brooks is going to "let the legal system take it's course" and make a decision after the season is over.
It wasn't too long ago that I was opining that Louisville might not be in as bad a shape as everyone thought. I take it back, they're screwed. Before this week, Louisville had lost 21 underclassmen since the beginning of 2007. And this past week has been a lot of the same.
With Trent Guy being shot outside a night club, and JuJuan Spillman being arrested (again) for dui/marijuana possession/concealed weapon, it's time to call in the professionals. And I'm not talking about counselors and security chiefs. We've gone well past all conventional approaches. What this team needs is a complete karma makeover.
Steve Kragthorpe's phone rings....
Hello...
DUDE!!! IT'S TY PENNINGTON!!
Who?...
TY PENNINGTON FROM EXTREME HOME MAKEOVER! WHAT'S UP BRAAAAH?
Scary news from Louisville, as junior receiver Trent Guy (pictured, right) was shot in the back as he left a nightclub early Saturday morning. He was hospitalized (obviously), but doctors expect him to make a full recovery. Police have made no arrests in the case, which makes no sense until you remember the victim is black.
The story is a familiar one, as you might imagine when you hear "nightclub," "early Saturday morning," and "shot." Nothing remarkable shows up in the details: stranger gropes woman, fiancé (in this case, Trent) gets upset, angry words get exchanged, everybody gets kicked out, pop go the shots.
As Guy's fiancée's friend Christopher 2X (uh...?) put it, "[h]e's a very fortunate and lucky young man to be alive." Technically, he's lucky in that his gunshot wound isn't threatening his life, but you know who was luckier than Guy that night? The other 99.9% of people at the club who weren't shot at all.
Grousing aside, it may be time for Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe to consider revising team rules on presence at bars. We're not advocating a "stay away forever there be dragons" approach; after all, part of the maturation process is to learn the difference between good and bad decisions, not to be protected from danger at all times.
Still, as Trent Guy and the team just learned, all it takes is one armed idiot to turn a good night out into a tragedy.
Anyone who's watched Louisville go from up-and-coming power to insta-has-been this year has idly wondered if Steve Kragthorpe would get the ziggy faster than anyone since Mike Price, but rumors of an escape hatch as SMU seemed too odd to be true.
In the past few hours this story has metastasized from fanciful rumor to real possibility; Card Chronicle with the straight dope:
ESPN's Pat Forde wrote in his "Forde Yard Dash" column today that a source had informed him that it was "50/50" whether embattled first-year Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe would leave if he were offered the job at SMU.
Now WHAS-11's Kyle Draper and 790 a.m.'s Adam Neft are reporting that U of L football sports information director Rocco Gasparro has confirmed the 50/50 rumor. Both are also reporting that Tom Jurich is backing his head coach and wants him to stay.
Kragthorpe, of course, was a moderately successful coach at Tulsa tabbed to replace Bobby Petrino when Petrino left for Arthur Blank's six trillion million billion dollars.
It's all still rumors and such, but it looks like Southern Methodist University has taken an interest in Louisville head coach Steve Kragthorpe. And apparently no one in Louisville is all that upset about it. From reading the comments on Card Chronicle as Mike has followed the rumors, you get the idea that the biggest concern isn't if Kragthorpe is leaving, but who will replace him.
If you follow coaching changes at major universities, you know one thing. And that is that it is never a good idea to follow THE MAN. You always want to be the guy that follows the guy. That didn't work out all that well for Bill Callahan at Nebraska, but at least he is going to get fired for something worth being fired for. Unlike Frank Solich, who got fired for a very respectable record. But that's another story.
Kragthorpe, following in the very large footsteps of Bobby Patrino, was expected to contend for a national title in his first year. No matter what the talent level on the team, that's always going to be a near impossible task. And it turned out to be very impossible for Kragthorpe.
If it is true that Kragthorpe is leaving, it's still unclear what effect this will have on the Louisville program. In the short term, it will probably be a setback. But with the universities commitment to upgrading the Louisville program, it should be a very tempting position for just about any college coach. And it shouldn't be too long before the team gets back to winning some football games.
...at least by one metric. Which is the metric we should definitely use because it exonerates Michigan. And by "exonerates" I mean "doesn't really exonerate at all."
In the aftermath of that whole Appalachian State thing -- I think Michigan might have lost or something -- many called the upset the greatest of all time. It may well be by certain definitions: Michigan is the only ranked team to ever drop a game to a I-AA foe and the first top 5 team to drop out of the top 25 entirely after an opening week loss. By any definition of the term "good," Appalachian State was not good. But the Apps were only a 22-23 point underdog, depending on who you listen to.
The Orange was a 37-point underdog to the Cards, according to oddsmakers.
This would appear to be the biggest spread overcome in the history of college football. Other contenders:
In 1998, an 0-5 Temple team beat 5-0 Virginia Tech 28-24 as a 36-point underdog. That game is usually cited as the biggest upset of the past 10 years, point-spread wise.
A 1985 game in which Oregon State beat Washington 21-20 is often considered the largest point-spread upset. Oregon State was anywhere from a 36 to a 38-point 'dog, depending on which line you use.
So, all right! Michigan blowing it against Appalachian State isn't even within two touchdowns of the biggest upset ever! This makes me feel much, much better about everything! I am not lying about this in any way!
There have never been times as good as these for Louisville football. They may never again be times as good as these for Louisville football. So long as one of college football's finest upstarts is doing good things on the field, it doesn't hurt to talk about those successes.
Louisville heads into 2007 as a likely top 10 team with a hotshot new coach in Steve Kragthorpe, arguably the nation's best quarterback contending for the Heisman Trophy and an outside shot at the national championship. They've been building towards this the past few years under Bobby Petrino, winning a BCS game last year before their coach bolted for the NFL. However, the pieces are still in place for another championship run.
"We were just three points away last year," said Brohm, who missed two whole games and parts of another with a thumb injury. "This year, we need to stay focused and keep doing what we've been doing. I think we have a shot at the national title."
The Cardinals have had some good years since joining Division I in 1973 (10-1-1 in 1990 under Howard Schnellenberger, 11-2 in 2001 under John L. Smith), but nothing sustained like the run from 2003 to present.
If you look at this link, there's a stat called "delta" which is simply points scored minus points allowed. Its a rough measure, but helps paint a picture of a team's combined dominance (or lack thereof) on both sides of the ball. Few seasons in the program's history can match the 9-3 effort in 2005 with a 236 point delta. Yet, it's just the third highest delta in the last three seasons. There has simply never been a run like this in Louisville history.
The payoff is that the Cardinals are not being laughed at as title contenders. More importantly, they're not laughing at themselves, either. From quarterback Brian Brohm's interview with Heisman Pundit at CSTV.com:
"Our expectations are high. Our ultimate goal is to be national champions."
And should Louisville get to that BCS title game, it is not a stretch to think that it will be because of some Heisman-worthy performances out of Brohm.
"It would mean a great deal to be considered for the Heisman," said Brohm. "It's the most coveted award in sports. But it all will come down to how good the team is."
Brohm has had some injury problems so far in his career, but if he stays healthy and has the kind of season of which he is capable, the Cardinals could be better than good.
They could be great.
They have some Big East competition with Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida, but they're worth keeping an eye on if big-name favorites like USC and LSU falter. The talent is there on offense, and some new additions on defense should give them greater credibility on that side of the ball. All that's left is to play the games and find out.
If you took over a team that fired the last coach because he went 6-6 and it took you three years to get seven wins, you might be in trouble. If you took over the 14th winningest program in college football history and you are about to give up that distinction to a conference foe, you really need to produce. If any of this sounds like you, Greg Robinson, come on down. You're our first choice for coaches on the hot seat. 
When I hear that a player is going to lose playing time due to an off field incident, I usually consider that to be missing the first set of downs or the first quarter of the next game. So after being arrested twice in the past two months, potential Kentucky starting quarterback Curtis Pulley could lose some time on the field as 
Hello...
DUDE!!! IT'S TY PENNINGTON!!
Scary news from Louisville, as 
Anyone who's watched Louisville go from up-and-coming power to insta-has-been this year has idly wondered if Steve Kragthorpe would get the ziggy faster than anyone since Mike Price, but rumors of an escape hatch as SMU seemed too odd to be true. 
It's all still rumors and such, but it looks like Southern Methodist University has 
